


A Walk in the Park

by TheBadIdeaBears



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Dorks in Love, F/M, Fluff, Jogging, Roy is a huge dork, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-01
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-10-26 09:33:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10784157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBadIdeaBears/pseuds/TheBadIdeaBears
Summary: Roy decides to take a new route to work through the park. Nice scenery, nice exercise, nice blonde lady jogging with dog... After staring at her for a week her dog thinks it's high time the two of them spoke to each other.





	A Walk in the Park

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Pandora's birthday in 2016 by Holly.

Roy had to admit that, for once, Hughes was actually right. He very rarely followed his advice, mostly because it was always terrible (like the time he had bet Roy that he couldn't get the cute blonde interns phone number and the cute blonde intern had turned out to be an angry firecracker named Edward) but on this occasion Hughes was actually right. He had been bending Roy's ear for weeks about changing his route to work and finally Roy had decided to take his advice. 'You should go through the park,' Hughes had kept telling him 'it really is beautiful first thing in the morning' and he wasn't wrong.

The park on the outskirts of town really was beautiful especially first thing in the morning when the sun was just peeking over the tops of the trees, the light breeze picked up the scent of the flowers and there was no one else around aside from the occasional dog walker or person doing a sneaky walk of shame. It was a nice and relaxing way to get to his office in the centre of town; much more pleasant than sitting in traffic for a hour on a journey that should only take him twenty minutes at the most.

It was one particular morning, after he had been taking this route for about two weeks since he had given in to Hughes' advice (who had been gloating ever since Roy had told him that he had started walking that way... that bastard), when he suddenly noticed something more than just the scenery. After about two weeks it suddenly came to his attention that every single morning, about about the same time each day, he saw the same toned, blonde woman out jogging with the same black and white dog running along beside her.

The first time she had jogged passed him Roy hadn't really paid that much attention, he had been too busy looking up at the pinkish hue to the sky and wondering if it was going to rain, lamenting the fact that he hadn't brought an umbrella with him. The next time he had seen her he had been admiring the spring flowers beginning to push through when she had jogged into his line of vision, her stunning legs being the first thing he had seen before he looked up at the rest of her. Now that had gotten his attention.

She was the most stunning woman Roy had ever seen; long blonde hair scraped back out of her face, headphones in and a University of Amerstris t-shirt on. She had smiled at Roy as she passed and he had tried to smile back but he had been so stunned by how beautiful she was that he didn't quite know what he had ended up doing with his face. Once she had passed he had looked over his shoulder to continue watching her. His eyes had nearly burst out of his head as he cast a glance up her shapely legs and saw the curve of her backside. You could bounce a coin off that! He had immediately turned back to the path in front of him, feeling like a creep.

The next day he had seen her jogging with her dog again. After the embarrassment of catching himself staring at her backside the day before he had mostly paid attention to the dog this time. It was a sweet little thing; a black and white puppy that seemed utterly delighted to be out running in the early morning fresh air. He had cast a swift glance up at his owner and she smiled at him. Roy smiled back, this time trying not to look so much like a gaping goldfish, and gave her a small wave. Immediately he had regretted that (he must have looked like such an idiot) but she had jogged passed and either hadn't noticed his idiocy or thought it was endearing.

He had allowed himself to have a look at her over his shoulder. She really did look absolutely stunning in that tracksuit. He smiled to himself as he continued on his way to work and he was unable to keep the smile off his face for the rest of the day. He was already enjoying his new found route to work but now he was enjoying it even more. Sometimes just thinking about that smile of hers was the only thing that got him through the day. He never mentioned it to anyone though, they would think he was insane. He didn't even know her name! All he knew about her was that she was gorgeous and she liked dogs.

Every single weekday for a month he walked through the park to work and every single weekday he saw the stunning blonde woman (who Hughes had named 'Jogging Girl' after he had badgered Roy to find out why he was staring off into space and smiling to himself). Every day when he saw her she would smile at him and he would give her a small wave and smile back. He found himself thinking of her more and more and hoping that he would see her the next day and each day it put a smile on his face when he did.

Of course Hughes had had to throw his opinion in. 'You should go there at the weekend' he had after bugging Roy to talk about her for the fifth day in a row 'see if she jogs then too'. Roy knew that Hughes was probably joking around with him but the more he thought about it the more it seemed like a good idea. He was quite taken by this woman and he wanted to see her again, maybe even talk to her if possible. If he didn't have to carry on and go to work then it would probably even be possible... unless of course she ran away from him because he had now crossed over to borderline stalking.

When the next Saturday rolled around Roy decided that he would go to the park at the same time he usually did and see if Hughes had a point. He could also make a conscious effort to get fit while he was at it. It would look too strange for him to just be wandering through the park at that hour on a Saturday morning if he wasn't going for a jog as well. He pulled on his tracksuit (which was much tighter than the last time he had worn it... maybe he should consider making this a regular thing), grabbed his old MP3 player and left the house.

He had been out for nearly an hour before taking a minute to catch his breath. He had seen no sign of 'Jogging Girl' and had come to the realisation that he was desperately out of shape. He heaved himself to his feet, planning to do one more lap before giving up the ghost and going back home to shower when a barking stopped him. He looked round to see 'Jogging Girl's dog, bounding towards him. The dog stopped when it reached him and stared up at him, tongue hanging out and panting. Roy squatted down so that he was eye level with the dog and gave it a scratch behind the ears.

“Hello,” he said, smiling at the dog as it pushed its nose into his hand and licked his palm. “Where did you come from?” He stroked the back of the dog's neck and felt a collar underneath all his fur. He followed the collar round to the front to find the tag and looked at it. “Black Hayate?” he asked the dog who leaned forward and sniffed his chest as an answer. _Ask a dog a question..._ Roy thought. He looked up from the dog and cast a glance around. 'Jogging Girl' was nowhere to be seen but Roy was content to sit and fuss with the dog for a moment.

“Hayate!” a woman's voice called. “Black Hayate!” Roy looked up and saw 'Jogging Girl' running towards him, looking around frantically. “Black Hayate!”

“Over here,” Roy called. He took hold of the dog's lead and stood up, waving to her. He saw her sigh with relief before jogging over to him.

“Thank you so much,” she said smiling at him as she reached him. “I'm so sorry for troubling you, he just got away from me.”

“It's no trouble at all,” Roy smiled at her as he handed over Black Hayate's lead. She took the lead and gave his head a stroke.

“Hey you no more running off, okay,” she told the dog. He barked happily at her. She smiled at Roy looking up at him again. “Thank you, I don't know how far away he would have gotten if you hadn't have stopped him.”

“It's no trouble,” Roy said again. “He came over to say 'hi' and I love dogs so I'm always happy to say 'hi' back.”

“He does like to go up to bother strangers,” she said rolling her eyes. She studied Roy's face for a moment as if she were trying to place how she knew him. “You're the one I see walking to work every morning, right?”

“Um yes,” Roy cleared his throat and held out his hand. “I'm Roy... Mustang.”

“Riza Hawkeye,” she said holding out the hand that wasn't holding Black Hayate's lead. At the exact same time they both looked down to see Riza holding out the same hand as Roy. She chuckled nervously before swapping the lead to the other hand so that she could shake Roy's. “So what brings you to the park every morning?”

“I walk through here on my way to work,” he said. “How about you?”

“Jogging with the dog,” Riza said nodding in Black Hayate's direction and Roy suddenly realised that that should have been obvious. Roy shook his head and chuckled softly.

“Of course,” he said. “I'm sorry, that was a stupid question.”

“Just a little,” Riza replied grinning.

“So still at it even on a weekend?” Roy asked trying to cover up his mistake.

“Yeah,” Riza said looking down at her clothes.

“I assume you're not off to work dressed like that,” she said, nodding at Roy's.

“No,” he replied. “I thought I'd try and do something useful with my Saturday morning and I can't remember the last time I got a decent bit of exercise in.”

“Tracksuit suits you,” Riza said. As soon as the words were out of her mouth she grimaced, realising how they must have sounded. “Not that you don't look good in your work clothes... God that sounded even worse. I'm sorry.”

“No not at all,” Roy said hurriedly. “I mean this is the first time you've seen me in something that isn't a suit. I've only ever seen you in what you're in now.” He gestured to her tracksuit. He grimaced too; that had sounded terrible. _Back up, try again and say something that doesn't make you sound like an arse_ , he thought. “Not that you don't look terribly nice in it. Okay that sounds bad too... what I mean to say is... oh just stop talking Roy.”

Riza laughed and the sound was like music to Roy's ears. Just being able to talk to this woman after admiring her for weeks on end and all he was doing was tripping over his words like a sixteen year old. He never had this kind of trouble talking to women but she seemed to be making him incredibly tongue tied. Having said that she also seemed to be a little nervous (or maybe he was imagining it). A lock of her hair had fallen out of her ponytail and, without thinking about it Roy reached over and brushed it behind her ear. His eyes widened as she blushed and he immediately pulled his hand back.

“So it's... er... nice to actually talk to you rather than just jogging past you every morning,” Riza said trying to gloss over what had just happened.

“Yes,” Roy replied. “Very much so... it's nice to meet you properly.” Roy could barely take his eyes off her. He had seen how gorgeous she was when she had been running past him every morning but now here she was, in front of him, and he could not take his eyes off her. He felt something tug slightly at his legs but assumed it was the dog and paid it no attention. “So you must live near here.”

“Just round the corner from the entrance to the park,” she said. “Near the swimming pool, you?”

“About three roads down on the other side,” he told her. He could still feel that tugging but he continued to ignore it. “So we're on opposite sides then?”

“Looks like we are,” Riza replied.

“It's a gorgeous park,” Roy stated. “I almost wish I had started walking through here sooner.”

“I like it,” Riza said nodding “and he likes chasing squirrels.”

“I have seen quite a few running around here for him to...” Roy began but he was cut off as the tugging around his legs suddenly tightened and he felt his knees hitting something solid and Riza was suddenly a lot closer than she had been a second ago. He looked down and saw that while they had been talking Black Hayate had wound his lead around their legs but had gone off trying to chase squirrels and had pulled them together.

“Oh my goodness I'm so sorry,” Riza said looking down as well. She tried to take a step backwards but that only seemed to pull on the lead even more and Roy was struggling to keep his balance.

“Wait,” Roy said trying to take a step to regain his balance but that only seemed to pull the lead even tighter around their legs. “Don't move!”

Before either he or Riza could do anything else, he lost his balance and fell backwards, taking Riza with him and sending the two of them crashing to the floor. On instinct Roy wrapped his arms around Riza to shield her from the fall although he knew that she was going to fall on top of him. As Roy's back hit the floor and Riza fell on top of him he closed his eyes and felt something soft hitting his lips. He looked up to see Riza staring down at him, their lips barely centimetres apart.

The two of them suddenly stopped trying to struggle against the lead and stared at each other. Roy could feel his face heating up and he saw a blush dusting Riza's cheeks as well. She propped herself up on on hand and gently touched her lips with the other, staring down at Roy with wide eyes, barely able to believe what had just happened. If he was honest Roy hadn't expected it either. How often did things like this happen to actual people? Never! They only ever happened in films! It almost felt ridiculous, especially when that strand of her hair fell out again and Roy didn't even think before he reached up and brushed it back behind her ear. That seemed to snap Riza back to reality.

“I'm so sorry,” she said as she began trying to untangle the lead while they were still on the floor. It was rather awkward but so was everything about this interaction so far. “I can't believe that just happened.”

“It's fine,” Roy said waving her off. He took a deep breath, he really wished she would stop wriggling though. “It was just an accidental lip bump, we can laugh about it later.”

“That sounds like a good plan,” Riza laughed. She had manage to untangle them and, very awkwardly pushed herself off Roy so that she could heave herself to her feet. She held out her hand and helped pull him up. Even though they were now both standing Roy neither of them let go of the other's hand. They continued to stand there staring at each other for a couple of minutes before Black Hayate barked, making them both jump. Roy instantly let go of Riza's hand and rubbed the back of his neck.

He knew that this was going to be the part where he was supposed to just walk away, say that it was nice to meet her and then they could continue on with their lives; only just seeing each other first thing in the morning as she jogged past him on his way to work. He knew that he was supposed to do that but he didn't want to. He had spent way too much time admiring this woman to just leave her now without taking a shot. Besides they had already had an accidental kiss so what did he have to loose?

“Would you like to go and have lunch with me?” he asked. “Just to make up for the... er... accidental lip bump.” Riza stared at him, blinking. The silence that followed seem to stretch on for longer than Roy was comfortable with (although he was sure that it seemed longer to him because he was waiting for an answer). A smile spread across Riza's face.

“That sounds nice,” she said. Roy's heart leapt and he had to make sure that he didn't end up jumping for joy like a giddy school-boy.

“Fantastic,” he said a little breathlessly. “There's this lovely little café I pass on the way to work near the top of the park. Never been in there but there's seats outside and we should get a nice bit of sun up there now.”

“That sounds wonderful,” Riza said. “Lead the way.”

“Okay,” Roy nodded smiling and began walking in the direction of the café with Riza beside him and Black Hayate trotting at their heels.

 

The café was as nice inside as it looked outside. Roy and Riza sat at one of the outside tables in the sun with Black Hayate lying beside the table. The waitress had fussed around him for a bit and had bought him out a dish of water and some dog biscuits free of charge. Black Hayate enjoyed the attention but Roy was only interest in Riza. He was already quite smitten with her and with everything she said he found himself becoming more and more attracted to her. He didn't want this to ever end.

After they had made both lunch and coffee last as long as they possibly could Roy offered to walk Riza home, which she accepted. It was mid afternoon by that point and there were more people around; families out enjoying the sunshine, teenagers lounging around by the duck pond (smoking and trying to get laid) and more people out with dogs. Roy paid no attention to any of them, all his attention was solely focused on Riza. The way she smiled, the way she got particularly animated when she talked about something she was passionate about and the way she also seemed to be focusing solely on him. Everything about her had Roy smitten.

Finally they arrived at her front door and Roy had just about worked up enough courage to try for a proper kiss this time (or if not at least ask for her phone number). While Riza fumbled around in her pockets for her front door keys Roy leaned down and gave Black Hayate a scratch behind the ears and was returned with a lick to the forearm. He looked up at Riza when she was finished and smiled.

“I had a lovely time,” Riza said. “Thank you so much for lunch and for catching my dog and I'm sorry for knocking you over and accidentally kissing you.”

“It's quite alright,” Roy laughed. “I actually quite enjoyed it.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth he realised what he had said. He sighed and closed his eyes as if he were in physical pain, waiting to hear the door close in his face. He might as well at least try and salvage the situation. “I meant...”

“I know what you meant,” Riza laughed. Roy sighed with relief and laughed, opening his eyes.

“Thank god,” he said.

“Well,” Riza said after a short pause “it was very nice to meet you Roy and I guess I will see you same time Monday morning.”

“I guess so,” Roy said. “I'll see you Monday.”

“See you Monday,” Riza said and leaned forward slightly. Roy blanched a little, was she leaning in for a kiss? He looked down and saw her outstretched arm... okay she was leaning in for a hug. That made more sense. Roy leaned in to hug her and realised a little too late that she was probably leaning in for a handshake. What was his problem today? He turned his head at the last second to try and salvage the situation but so did Riza and as they turned their lips brushed in another accidental kiss.

“You were going in for a handshake weren't you?” Roy said pulling away quickly. This was so awkward! Could it get any worse? Riza laughed softly.

“Yeah,” she said. Roy smacked the palm of his hand to his forehead.

“I'm such an idiot,” he groaned.

“It's fine,” Riza said. “Accidental lip bump; we can laugh about it later.” God she was perfect! If there was any woman who could make him feel better about being a complete idiot then it was her. He couldn't just leave it till Monday to see her again and he didn't want to just go back to waving to her on her morning jog.

“Oh screw it,” he muttered under his breath before he slipped his hand round the back of her neck and pulled her into a proper kiss. He felt her stiffen in surprise for a second before she kissed him back, reaching up to grab hold of the front of his t-shirt with both hands and push herself right up against him. As they kissed Roy wrapped his other arm around her waist and pulled her even closer. They stayed like that until the need for air became too strong and they pulled away from each other, panting, but still holding on to each other as if to keep themselves standing. Roy reached over and brushed Riza's fringe out of her eyes.

“Wow,” she breathed.

“Yeah,” Roy replied in kind.

“Is this what you do with everyone you meet in the park?” she asked.

“Not since I was seventeen,” Roy replied grinning sheepishly. “Riza you are stunning and I have been admiring you since I first saw you... That makes me sound like a stalker... What I mean is I want to see you again and not just as you're jogging past me in the park. I mean I want to see you out of you jogging clothes and... oh god, just stop talking Roy!” Riza laughed before she reached up to kiss him again to get him to stop rambling.

“I'd like that,” she said, smiling.

“Wonderful,” Roy said, a similar smile spreading over his face before he leaned down to kiss her again. This was the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon and, hopefully if he played his cards right, then it would not be the last Saturday he spent like this.

 


End file.
